The news outlet tracked deaths for those under age 18 and under age 50 from 2004 to 2012. The postal code with the highest mortality rate for those age groups was P0V, which covers a large swath of rural northern Ontario. The median family income there is $49,071, far less than in other Ontario postal code regions.

Analysis of incomes by postal code has been used by other journalists to identify low-earning areas. In 2010, Vancouver Sun columnist Chad Skelton set out to fact-check the assertion that the city's Downtown Eastside was "Canada's poorest postal code."

Skelton concluded that the neighbourhood is actually the poorest urban postal area according to StatsCan data. He pointed to several rural First Nations communities with a lower median income, including Burnt Church and Elsipogtog First Nations in New Brunswick.

Global also rounded up the 10 wealthiest and 10 poorest areas using census income data. However, it came up with a different list, pointing to Winnipeg's inner city and Nova Scotia's Eskasoni First Nation as the poorest areas.

Many residents of Red Lake, which is covered by the P0V postal area, either make six-figure incomes in local mines or have to resort to low-wage jobs or social assistance, Now Toronto writer Mike Balkwill discovered.